


Chapter and Verse

by Butterfly



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2009-02-04
Updated: 2009-02-04
Packaged: 2017-10-26 19:38:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/287112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Butterfly/pseuds/Butterfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor, Rose, and Donna stumble into a problem the Doctor thought he'd left in the past.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chapter and Verse

Rose Tyler seemed to have entered a determined silent war with the Doctor. Donna wasn't sure where Rose had decided _she_ was located in all this, but she was concerned that her future in the TARDIS depended on what Rose thought. And if that were true, her prospects could look better. Rose didn't seem ready to bend even the slightest.

The Doctor, on the other hand, kept offering up eager suggestions to Rose about the particulars of their upcoming trip, changing them and adding more possibilities when he got no response from his audience. He would make a few adjustments to their flight path every time that he offered up a new idea, and the whole room would shake as their destination changed.

“We could go take Donna to see your statue,” the Doctor said. Donna shifted uncomfortably on the bench, wishing that the Doctor hadn't brought her name into this – Rose raised an eyebrow, leaning back against the TARDIS console. She seemed to know just where to rest to not be touching anything important but to be right in the Doctor's way as he bobbed and weaved around her like a buoy caught in a restless ocean. “Or... I could take you to meet Marc Antony! Very charismatic, if a bit violent. Still, less so around women. _Well_ , women he doesn't know... or own... or fear.”

“Would you be spending time with Cleo while we were there?” Rose asked, examining her fingernails, nothing but sweetness in her voice. The Doctor, who _could_ be bright on occasion, flinched at the question.

“And you always say that you don't know your history,” he said in a strained voice. He glanced over at Donna and then jerked his head to the side. Donna pursed her lips in confusion and then a light clicked – ah! He wanted her to leave, for a bit, so that he could talk to Rose alone. Because that had clearly gone so well last time. Donna mouthed 'maybe I can help' back and the Doctor squinted at her. Then he sighed and shrugged, as if to say, 'you probably can't hurt'. Donna rolled her eyes and resisted the urge to mouth back an annoyed 'thanks for the vote of confidence'.

“The thing that I've been wondering about is how we're going to get around in Rome,” Donna said, using a carrying voice. Rose looked over in her direction for the first time since the Doctor had come back into the room. Donna wondered if Rose had possessed that cuttingly polite icy stare the last time the Doctor had known her or if it was something she'd picked up in the place she'd been lost. Still, despite the lack of welcome, Donna rallied to her cause. “Because I can speak a little Latin, but nothing useful, not unless we're planning on coming, seeing, and conquering.”

“Oh, the TARDIS translates,” Rose said, the coldness in her melting around the edges. Talking about the ship seemed to be helping. Rose didn't just love the Doctor, then, she loved this too. That might be useful information when it came to Donna talking her way into a more permanent arrangement. Rose stroked her hand along a nearby panel, her eyes fond. “Inside your head. It's really rather brilliant.”

The Doctor beamed at Donna as if she'd hung the moon, so she decided to keep on and asked the question that immediately popped up in her mind.

“If it gets translated... what happens if I speak to them in actual, real Latin?”

“I've never thought about that,” Rose said, sounding intrigued and looking over at the Doctor expectantly. “Doctor?”

“I have no idea,” he said. Now, he didn't just look pleased, but impressed. She'd stumped the great Lord of Time, himself. Ha! Point to the human.

“Well, that's what I'm going to do,” Donna said, folding her arms in triumph. The flight had settled enough that she didn't need to brace herself for right now. “I'm going to talk to a Roman in Latin.”

“Oh, I see why he likes you,” Rose said, a warm smile on her face for the first time since the Doctor had brought up the subject of Donna travelling with them. “You're clever.”

“Does that mean...?” the Doctor asked, sounding, of all things, shy. Donna wasn't sure how he was managing to look up at Rose through his eyelashes, but it was fairly fascinating to watch. It was like watching a lynx roll over and beg for a belly rub.

“Yeah, it does,” Rose said, reaching out and tugging the Doctor into a hug. Rose buried her face in his shoulder, so that Donna could only see the fall of her hair against the Doctor's suit.

Well, that was... almost anti-climatic. On the one hand, it was nice that they apparently had the shortest fights in the world, but she'd expected something... bigger?

They certainly were taking their time about finishing up that hug.

Donna started to head over to the console, to see if she could figure anything more out from the monitor. It couldn't be in alien all the time.

“Oi!” the Doctor protested, pulling away from Rose and placing himself in front of Donna. He crossed his arms over his chest and had quite a stern look on his face. It didn't suit him. “Those are very delicate.”

“You hit them with a mallet,” Donna said, repressing, with some regret, the urge to smack him in the arm.

“I know what I'm doing,” the Doctor said, turning up his nose like a cat that'd been displaced from its favorite chair.

“I seem to recall a certain incident...” Rose teased, brushing up against the Doctor's arm. The Doctor's haughty expression melted like it had never existed.

“You wouldn't,” he breathed.

“What?” Donna asked. “What did he do?”

“Yes, Doctor, what _did_ you do?” Rose asked, cheekily. “Or maybe she should be asking 'what did you admit to'?”

Donna glanced between the two of them, noticing the way the Doctor had angled his body toward Rose and the way that she was now brushing against his arm. Unfortunately for Donna's curiosity, Rose was clearly playing around with the Doctor and not planning on actually revealing anything he wouldn't want her to say.

“Don't make me regret bringing you on board,” the Doctor said to Rose, who grinned at him merrily.

“Should've stayed away the first time,” she said, her nose crinkling up. It was the most ridiculously adorable expression that Donna had ever seen and it really shouldn't have worked on someone Rose's age, yet she somehow pulled it off. “I could have been manager at Finches' butcher shop by now.”

“Ordering everyone around is your style,” he said, with a bit of a wink. “You'd be owner already.”

“Not to interrupt the endless flirting, but your ship is blinking at you,” Donna said, pointing at the monitor, where five symbols kept flashing on through the same order. How long, she wondered, would it have taken them to notice that without her around?

“What?” the Doctor said, turning back to the monitor and then cracking it a good one up the side. The monitor wobbled for a moment from the impact.

“Knows what he's doing. Bah,” Donna said, not bothering to be quiet.

“That's just... Oh! Well, if I compensate for the... but that shouldn't be around for a thousand years...” He was twisting dials and dashing around and running his mouth the entire time.

“Rome is nice,” Rose said, moving closer to where Donna had stopped. The Doctor, who had raced over to the other side of the platform, called out for Rose to do something that Donna couldn't even pronounce and Rose reached over and flipped a switch that looked like it was secured with string – the Doctor yelled a quick thanks. Rose didn't look away from Donna. “If he's the one that picked it, though, and you'd rather go somewhere else for your trip, just let me know and we'll change it.”

“Should we be worried?” Donna asked – the Doctor had pulled out a small hammer and smacked something with it, swearing. Rose glanced over, tilting her head, and then turned back to Donna with a tiny, one-shouldered shrug.

“Happens a lot,” she said. “It's actually... it's one of the good things, isn't it? Like a funfair ride. You might throw up, but the vertigo is worth it.”

“Never really liked thrill rides,” Donna admitted, reaching out to grab onto the side of the console for a handhold. “Wasn't all that thrilled with him, when we first met. He grows on you, though.”

“He does,” Rose said, a faint blush staining her cheeks.

“Rose, what's the gravitation pull chart saying?” the Doctor asked, slamming his fist down on something that Donna couldn't see. Rose threw Donna an apologetic look and then turned back to the monitor, twisting one of the knobs on the front.

“Three-sixteen-danish-custard,” Rose said, though Donna could only see odd swirly shapes. “Also, the hamburger is blue.”

“Right, thanks!” the Doctor said, rushing over to another section of the console.

“The hamburger is blue?” Donna asked, not able to help herself.

“Oh, no,” Rose said, with a bit of a giggle. “That was actually... that was Gallifreyan, the Doctor's language. _Allseithaambergurissbluh_. It means... something about Tuesdays on the left. It's hard to translate.”

“You can speak his language?”

“Not much of it,” Rose said, with a shrug and a distant look in her eyes. “He's teaching me in bits and pieces. That one, I actually learned... a while ago. I hadn't realized that I'd remembered it.”

“Back before... before he lost you,” Donna said, softly. She still didn't know the details, but Rose seemed just as skittish about the particulars as the Doctor, so she might not ever find out. “That's when he taught you that one, isn't it?”

“You knew about that?” Rose asked, throwing her a startled glance. “Why would he... how could that possibly have mattered?”

“Oh! This wasn't... this isn't the first time I've met the Doctor,” Donna said, eyes narrowing thoughtfully. That man talked and talked, but he never said anything. “He didn't say?”

“He's bad at remembering when people need to know things,” Rose said, but with good humor, Donna was happy to see. “When did you know him before?”

“Right after he'd lost you, I accidentally got pulled into the ship and he saved my life,” Donna said. She had to look away for a bit, because despite everything Lance had done to her, despite knowing that it had never been real, she still felt a pang of loss in her heart when she thought of the wedding she'd never had. “He... he was in a lot of pain. Really missed you. Your shirt was up on that railing, right over there. It was... purple or blue. Something like that.”

“Ah,” Rose said. Donna glanced back over at her and she was biting her lip, looking thoughtful. “Why do you keep saying 'lost'? I'm not a parcel for the post or a lipstick that's fallen behind the mirror.”

“That's what he said, when I asked where you were,” Donna said. “Lost.”

“But you try to find lost things,” Rose said, and the wistfulness in her voice grabbed onto something deep in Donna's stomach and _twisted_. Rose was looking over at the Doctor, who seemed nearly satisfied with what was going on with the ship. Maybe he'd finally stopped changing his mind about where he was going.

Maybe the Doctor wasn't the only person here who needed someone here to listen.

The ship came to a stop – Donna still had her bit of ship but Rose had to grab onto one of the many protrusions off of the main console to keep from falling. The Doctor gave out a shout of triumph.

“Want to take a look outside before we get changed?” Rose asked.

“What for?” Donna asked,.

“You haven't known the Doctor long enough to realize that he sometimes gets these things a bit wrong?” Rose asked, loudly enough that the Doctor must have heard her. He came around the console and snagged her by the waist, tugging her up against his body. He bent closer and whispered something in her ear. Donna rolled her eyes, turning away from them and going toward the door.

She could hear Rose laughing, briefly, before the sound was muffled. Donna took a quick peek around her shoulder and, yes, that was definitely kissing. Well, good for them.

She opened the door and stuck her head outside.

Countryside. Lots and lots of very unhelpful countryside, with the occasional speckling of trees.

Well, there was a dirt path a few feet away from where the TARDIS had landed, but it wasn't giving any clues. They certainly weren't in Rome, but they could just be outside the city. It was impossible to say.

She shut the door and looked back around – ah. Still kissing. The Doctor's hands were around Rose's waist and hers were in his hair. They seemed fairly involved in the moment.

Donna cleared her throat.

They kept on with it.

She tried again, more loudly.

It looked like one of Doctor's hands was drifting down toward Rose's arse. Right, she was all for love and such things but she was _not_ going to watch the two of them shagging in front of her.

“So,” she said, lifting up her voice in a shout. “I can't tell where we are!”

They jumped apart like two dogs that had just had a firehose turned on them, both of them giving her very wounded looks. Donna rolled her eyes.

“It's just... grass out there,” she said, waving her hands. “We could be anywhere. We could be in Sweden!”

“Hmm,” the Doctor said, going over to his screen again. He made another questioning noise, pressing down on something that Donna couldn't quite see. “It says Rome... oh.”

“What does 'oh' mean?” Donna asked.

“Nothing good,” Rose said. She crowded against the Doctor's shoulder, making dissatisfied noises. “I can't read any of that.”

“That-” the Doctor said, extremely annoyed. “-would be my ship informing me that it would love to take me to Rome, after I deal with the power malfunction that hooked it into following a trace energy signature.”

“The TARDIS is blackmailing you?” Rose asked. Donna couldn't see her face, but she sounded vastly amused. “Is she at least telling you what we're looking for?”

“Don't encourage it, Rose,” the Doctor said, though none of Rose's enthusiasm seemed to be dampened. “There used to be stories of the rogue TARDIS, stealing away Time Lords and dumping them into eternal prisons of unbearable stench.”

“What, really?” Donna asked. The Doctor twisted around and grinned at her, looking like an idiot. “You just made that up!”

“Of course, I did,” the Doctor said, insufferably pleased with himself. “The closest that you'd ever get to a rogue TARDIS is well... hmm. Best not to get into that.”

“Get into what?” Donna asked.

“Any of it,” the Doctor said.

“Especially since you're only here for one trip,” Rose added, who seemed to know exactly what the Doctor was talking about.

“About that...” Donna started, then she glanced at the Doctor, who was looking rather dismayed. She sent him a look that said, very clearly, that she didn't plan on backing down as a rule, but only said to Rose, “I did want to see Rome.”

“You're right, of course,” Rose said, reaching up to touch her forehead. Her cheeks were slightly pink. Well, she _should_ be embarrassed. “We'll take you there after whatever this is gets cleared up. Speaking of,” she turned back toward the Doctor, “Where do you suppose we landed?”

“Since it's not coming up on the monitors, we'll need to work it out the old-fashioned way. Countryside, you said? With grass and lanes and... wait, any fences, hold on, I'll just pull up...”

His monitor turned into a camera view of the outside and Donna nodded.

“Grass. Dirt road. That's all. For miles.”

“ _Well_ , I don't know if you can actually see for miles from here. We're in a bit of a low point, not a true nadir, but still something of a geographical dip. That's going to have an affect on how far into the distance you can see - particularly humans such as yourself or Rose, who have weaker eyesight.”

"And what do your superior eyes tell you?" Donna snapped.

"There are some lovely, plentiful examples of _Poaceae_ out there," the Doctor said, sounding quite scholarly, just briefly. Then he smiled again, revealing the odd, silly man who'd laughed with her about riding on a Segway. "Or, to rephrase, there's a _lot_ of grass outside."

“It's not making think of Rome,” Rose said, tilting her head as she stared at the screen. “It's making me think of... I don't know. Scotland in the days of Queen Victoria, maybe. All that grass.”

“I wouldn't say Scotland, though it's Earth, without a doubt. The countryside is making me lean toward... England,” the Doctor said, tilting his head. “Based on the lack of development, clear skies, that bit of road right there, and – oo! see those trees! – I would say before your Industrial Revolution but only by a century or two. I believe that we're near an estate... Which makes me think that we should look into basic Elizabethan-era dresses for you and Donna.”

“You got all that from grass and a bit of road?” Donna asked, staring hard at the screen.

“Don't forget the trees,” the Doctor said. “ _Elizabethan_... I wonder if something went wrong during...” his words drifted off, his hand scrubbing at the back of his neck. “Actually... I wonder if... right. I'll be back!”

And he was off, racing away – Rose took right off, too, both of them pelting down a corridor. Donna, not about to be left out, followed after them.

Blimey, she understood what Sarah Jane had said earlier about this place being enormous. They went up a staircase and down a hall and went left and right and double-back and it was _exhausting_. Finally, they fetched up in what look like a dark, forgotten room. No dust, though, and the Doctor seemed to be looking for something in particular.

He knelt down and came up with a round, glass ball with a heavy crack taken out of it – there were chips all along the side of the crack, but on the inside, and the ball seemed to be filled with an odd purple dust.

“They got out,” he said, turning the ball over in his hands and pressing down on a place where the crack was large enough that some of the dust inside could have sprinkled out onto the floor. “That surge of power... the way the TARDIS has been acting ever since... there's always a cost. Always. You were allowed to stay, but she let out...”

“Doctor, what are you on about?” Rose asked, crouching down next to him and reaching out for his arm. He immediately and completely focused on Rose, so quickly and thoroughly that it send a strange chill up Donna's spine. “The cost for what?”

“When I was travelling with Martha, I encountered a species known as the Carrionites,” he said, gesturing with the glass sphere. “They were attempting to use Shakespeare's words to re-enter this world and take it over. The results would have been disastrous, but we were able to trap them into this vessel.”

He closed his eyes. Donna put her hand on his shoulder, wishing that she knew the right words to say.

“How did they get out?” Rose asked.

“When Martha accessed the Time Vortex, there was a surge of power that raced through the systems of the TARDIS,” the Doctor said. “Just as you didn't have full control over what you were doing with Jack, she was pulling power from places that she didn't control... she sapped away the energy that was sealing them inside, just enough that they were able to crack their way out and they headed here. Back to the place where they'd nearly succeeded before. Elizabethan England.”

“Well,” said Donna, adding 'Time Vortex' to the list of things she was asking the Doctor about the next time she got him alone. “At least we know why we're here.”


End file.
